


A Letter From Will

by SuperiorJello



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: M/M, Murder Husbands, Post-Episode AU: s02e07 Yakimono, dark!Will
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-01
Updated: 2017-08-01
Packaged: 2018-12-09 21:13:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11677182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuperiorJello/pseuds/SuperiorJello
Summary: A letter written from Will's POV sent to Freddie and posted to Tattlecrime, telling the story of how he fell into darkness at Hannibal's side. Inspired by a dream I had last night where I was Will and about to be married to Hannibal.Edit: I added a final section with Hannibal because the Jack and Will inserts were totally unbalanced without a third to finish it off.





	A Letter From Will

His cell phone was ringing. Jack Crawford scowled, angry that someone wanted to talk to him so early in the morning. He had been forced into retirement, sure, but he hadn't much minded the ability to sleep regularly and long once he had accepted it. He rolled over in the large, empty bed, looking at the glowing numbers on the side table. 6 am. He picked up the phone, staring at the familiar name. Zeller. He hadn't talked to him since... he let that thought fade. He didn't want to think about when. He swiped angrily across the screen.

"What?" He answered, peevishly.

"Good morning to you too, boss. How are you doing? Fine, just peachy, thanks for asking!" Zeller's tone was facetious, as ever. Jack merely grunted in reply. "Oh fine. Be grumpy whatever. You've certainly earned the right. Speaking of, the reason I'm calling is because you're going to want to go to Tattlecrime. It's about Will." That was enough to wake him up. He hadn't heard anything new about Graham since... well, since they figured he and the bloody rhymes-with-cannibal doctor had gone over that cliff.

"Now what-" The line went dead. He cursed.

Sitting up, he made a comfortable backrest out of his pillows, then opened the Tattlecrime app. The article was on the front page, of course. 'Murder Husband Speaks: A Letter From Will Graham'.

No. It couldn't be. He was dead, killed by Lecter long ago after Jack himself had refused to believe him. He had blamed himself for so long in that; Will had undoubtedly been trying to find a way to do the impossible, to catch Lecter and prove to Jack that he had been telling the truth all along. If only Jack had believed him when he had the chance... he shook his head. He couldn't change the past.

He opened the article.

 

_I fell into darkness like you fall asleep; slowly, and then all at once._

_He engineered it that way._

_Dr. Hannibal Lecter and I have been in a dance since the fateful Minnesota Shrike case. Jack brought him in, assigned him to me, kept me in his care, but I know now that once Hannibal had his hold on me, he never planned to let me go. No matter what Jack decided._

_Of course, it wasn’t until a couple years ago that I knew what song I was dancing to._

_I had an inkling, when I felt the betrayal crashing around me after my discovery of his… proclivities. Of course I was far too caught up in a spiral of abhorrence and pain to notice anything more, desperately trying to rid the world of someone who could hide himself so masterfully in plain sight that he could walk through the very gates of the FBI and not be noticed._

_When I sent Matthew Brown after him, the darkness began to wrap itself around me. It felt like drowning._

_I wonder now what would have happened if Jack had believed me then. There was a moment, after I had been released by Matthew Brown’s sacrifice, that I thought he had. But then he turned away, left me to deal with my revelations on my own, and then dragged me back into a world of darkness and death as I looked into more cases for him. Maybe I wouldn’t have broken so quickly._

_Maybe I would have anyways._

_It was Alana that made me realize. Alana and her attachment to him. I became so angry with her. I yelled at her, a few times. ‘Can’t you see? Why can’t you see!’_

_But I couldn’t see either. I was so blind._

_I began having conversations with Hannibal. I thought maybe I could catch him, show everyone that I hadn’t been crazy, that he really was the monster I said he was. That he was the Ripper. And to catch him I needed to be close._

_And I saw his game too. He wanted to change me, to make me more like him. I told myself I wouldn’t let him._

_He sent Randall Tier after me. It was both payback and a gift. I killed him with my bare hands. We ate his meat as his skin stretched over the skeleton he desired to have been born to. I told myself it was to help me catch him, to help me get even closer._

_Jack called me in the next day. We went over my own crime scene and I felt Randall’s life disappear under my own hands again. It was intoxicating. When Jack asked me where I had been, I told him I had been having dinner with Dr. Lecter. Hannibal smiled and agreed. I didn’t feel like I was drowning anymore._

_Alana was finally worried._

_She followed me home. We argued and she kissed me. I don’t know why. I mean I know why, but I don’t know why she thought it would work. But she did, and I realized I didn’t want her. Not anymore. All I could think of was Hannibal. I could finally see._

_I told her to leave. Then I drove to Hannibal. I wanted to laugh when I realized it was almost a mirror of that day so long ago when I had first kissed her and then immediately run to Hannibal when she rejected me. This time I didn’t enter until he invited me in. I didn’t want to appear rude._

_I told him why I was there. I told him that Alana kissed me. He didn’t react outwardly, but I could almost sense something boiling beneath his facade of calm. It felt like jealousy, but I didn’t believe that. He was sleeping with Alana, sure. But it was only to keep her blinded to his darkness, so he couldn’t be jealous of her kissing someone else. He didn’t care about her that way._

_Then he asked me why I had told her to leave, why I didn’t want her when he knew I had previous inclinations._

_The words dragged themselves out of me, I was as reluctant to let them out into the world as they were to stay. Once I confessed, I knew I was done for. He would know the control he had over me, and he would wield it like a knife._

_But I was already his. And so I told him._

_He broke into a smile so warm it rivaled the sun. I had seen his smiles before. They were cold little things- expressions he could manipulate his face into to show the proper emotions at the correct times. This was not one of those. This was something real, and it terrified me._

_But it also confused me, and so I opened myself completely to my gift. I had been holding back as much as I could to keep him out of my head, but I needed to understand. I let him pour into my mind, saw every facet of what was happening to him and to me, and how it was too late. He had won._

_But so had I. I had caught him just as thoroughly as he had caught me. I was his, and he was mine._

 

Will smiled a little at that. It had been years since he had come to that revelation, but the pure bliss of that moment was with him still. He was glad Freddie had decided to publish his letter with so few edits. It was his gift, both to his old friends that were still confused about what had happened, but mostly to Hannibal, to show that he wasn’t ashamed of who he had become. It was one of his wedding presents. The other one was currently drugged and on the cutting table of his own butcher shop. Will had a whole sculpture planned out, but had needed to take out the man's kidneys and part of the leg before the man woke up- the fear gave the meat an acrid taste both he and Abagail weren’t fond of. But the butcher should see who he had wronged before he died, and so Will waited.

The article still had a couple paragraphs left to read.

 

_There were many murders before the end. I won’t elaborate, as the FBI got them mostly right, except for my involvement in them. Of course, they would have figured them out faster if they had me there, but I couldn't do it anymore, not after my revelation. I already knew who it was anyway. It was the last one that got us caught, as you know. Francis Dollarhyde. His obsession with Hannibal and I was enough to get us working with the FBI again- their resources could lead us to our prey. Of course, he didn’t know he had become the target, until...well. You've seen the body. Beautiful, isn't it?_

_But the FBI was already on to us. The mistake was my fault, but I think Hannibal was getting bored of America anyways and left it for everyone to figure out. At least, when I argue he doesn’t put up much of a fight so I’m pretty sure I’m right._

_You thought we’d died when we went off that cliff. Didn't you know I'm fond of boats?_

_I’ve seen more of the world now than I ever would have seen if I wasn’t at his side. We’re getting married soon, Freddie’s title of ‘Murder Husbands’ even more accurate than before- though Hannibal of course loved it from the start. He proposed in front of a pair of corpses we had made together, it was very romantic. Good luck finding us. You won’t._

_P.S. Thanks for taking care of my dogs Alana. They look happy._

 

Hannibal sat back and chuckled lightly. The entire work was a thing of beauty, and the final barb would undoubtedly be understood by its target. The FBI would surely become most overexcited by Will's many revelations, but Alana herself would now know that they had been at her home and that she hadn't even had a hint of the occurrence until now. That she lived only because they had allowed it. And she would also see the dance of years ago for what it had been. Certainly she had realized that his relationship with her had been a way to blind her to his darkness, but now she would also see the jealousy that had spurred him into taking what Will had wanted, if only to keep Will from being with anyone but himself. And how she had been tossed away as soon as he knew Will to be his. But even more fascinating to Hannibal was that Will had bared himself to the world, and more importantly to his past friends, the people who had known him. He allowed a grin to curl itself into place. It was a gift, Hannibal could taste it in all its exquisite delectability. Will was telling the world just how much he loved Hannibal, and in that action he was showing it to Hannibal himself.

"Hannibal! Hannibal!" Abigail came careening around the corner of the hall into his study, her stocking feet sliding on the polished hardwood. He raised an eyebrow at her antics, but said nothing. She grinned unabashedly, then schooled herself into a more dignified pose. "Did you see the letter Will sent in?"

"I did." He said, and smiled. She read it all in that one movement- his surprise at the posting, his pleasure at the declaration, and most of all how much he loved Will in return. She turned on her heel and walked out, needing no further conversation. He was proud of her. He had been working on her ability to read people- she was no natural like Will, but Hannibal had learned these things the hard way and was more than willing to pass the techniques on to her.

He looked at the antique clock he had displayed across the room, wondering where Will had taken himself to. He wished to show his pleasure at Will's thoughtfulness, undoubtedly a gift for their upcoming matrimonial union.

He had been surprised when he had realized that love was indeed what he felt for the man that had become his partner in every way. He had thought himself incapable of love, or somehow above it all.

But, as with most things involving Will Graham, his own emotions had become totally unpredictable. And he wouldn't have things any other way.


End file.
